Finding a new home on Friday

The title is not about Fiona or myself but rather some of my larger sculptural pieces. As part of the Open Studios event in August 6 of my outdoor pieces were on display at Clovelly Estate as a bit of promotion for the OS and bit of profile for me. Kim and I organised a swap of one each of our pieces (plus other bits and pieces thrown into the negotiations - horse trading). I was invited to show the other 5 at a local gallery when I moved them from Clovelly - including the leaf below.

Barry Smith © Leaf - detail

Well today they were moved to their new home at Maleny Arts Retreat gallery.

I was really pleased Gary Myers was interested in showing my outdoor sculptures as the entrance into the gallery is a great garden setting for the pieces as you can see from the following photos.

Barry Smith © Slice of the landscape

Barry Smith © Leaf - rusted wire and metal plate

Barry Smith © Flow - sentinel at the entrance to the gallery

It is great to have these pieces of my work in a place that has a great reputation as an art centre; where they will be seen; and people know they are for sale. Photos are courtesy of Fiona and her trusty iPhone.

Bazola earrings bits; and photos of the moth

I asked Noela if she could create a stash of Bazola earrings and a couple of brooches for me to take to Melbourne when we go down next week to set up the Light and Lines exhibition in Handheld Gallery. I thought some of our friends down there could be interested in purchasing a piece or two of Bazola bling.

Noela suggested that I make a few more of my beaten, foldformed and stamped bits for her to choose from to create a selection. Last night we had a dinner party of fellow artists including our friend Noela so I handed the stash below over to her for the next part of the creative Bazola collaboration. In all, there are 14 pairs of bits - silverplated brass, brass and copper.

Barry Smith © Bazola silver-plated earring bits

Barry Smith © Bazola earring bits

Barry Smith © Bazola earring bits

Barry Smith © Bazola brass and copper earring bits

During the night I discovered a coloured moth on one of our privacy doors and couldn't resist taking a couple of photos with my iPhone - with and without flash.

Barry Smith © Moth through a glass darkly - no flash

Barry Smith © Moth through a glass darkly - with flash

And then of course I needed to play with the originals.

Barry Smith © Moth through a glass darkly -  flash - altered

Barry Smith © Moth through a glass darkly - no flash - altered

Barry Smith © Moth through a glass darkly - with flash - altered

Bit of fun and interesting outcomes.

And the dinner party was a bit of a hoot - good food, good friends, good wine, great art discussions and great laughs.

Polishing and packaging

On Friday I was able to do quite a bit of work on a couple of orders for leaves, bowls and Inspiration in your pocket bits.

Today the final polishing and packaging was done. As you can see from the photos below the pieces all are all shiny and blingy.

Barry Smith © A litter of shiny leaves

Barry Smith © Brass leaves - polished 

Barry Smith © Silver-plated bowl - brass shining through

Barry Smith © A little inspiration for the pocket

On Monday the orders will go in three directions: locally, down south and overseas. I find a real sense of satisfaction knowing the stuff I make from metal that is discarded or seen to have no further value is reborn and goes in all direction to be valued once again and to bring a bit of joy.

Inspired by a leaf

Earlier in the week on one of our morning walk Fiona found this tiny (about 35mm in circumference) amazingly spiraled little leaf below.

Barry Smith © Fiona's find

I couldn't resist photographing it in a 'rainbow' on my desk curtesy of the sun through the edge of our louvres.

Barry Smith © Leaf with rainbow colours

The finding of this leaf came on top of a couple of weeks of wind and leaf litter at Rainbow Beach and around the block - so I got into taking photos of leaf litter.

Barry Smith © Leaf litter - Rainbow Beach

Barry Smith © Leaf litter on our pathway 

Barry Smith © Leaf litter from Treehaven Way

A couple of enquiries about leaves for sale motivated me to use this afternoon to create a couple of metal leaf litters - one of brass and one of silver-plated brass.

Barry Smith © Art imitates nature - brass leaf

Barry Smith © Litter of brass leaves - in the rough

Barry Smith © Twin tiny leaves

Barry Smith © Silver-plated brass litter of leaves at sunset

The photos above are of the leaves in the rough at sunset.

Peace Post for 2011 - International Day of Peace

Today (21 September) is International Day of Peace. Fiona and I have this day highlighted in our diary for I'm sure it could float by unless we had a reminder. We usually mark it in some way: gonging our Japanese temple bell with the kanji script for peace inscribed on it; sending messages to people; making cards or cranes etc.

This year we started the day remembering the dedication of this world day; and we will gong the peace bell at sunset and spend a bit of time in reflective silence.

But a strange thing happened in the studio-garage on Sunday. I was finishing off my work for ALAW 2011. I had routed  the alphabet into an old square fence post but had done the letters in such a way that they created some words on four faces using the vowels once. The words were: Mindful, Pax, Joy and Be. I used the rest of the letters and a few decorative routed hatched squares to create a block border around the four sides of  the base.

I then embellished each face with bits of rust from 'the rust bank' to create four individual but connected faces. When it was time to take a few photos for posting on the ALAW 2011 blog I realised I had taken the photo below. As you can see on the two faces I had chosen randomly first were the words Be and Pax - be peace - a little bit spooky but such serendipity given that International Day of Peace was only a couple of days away.

So the post became Peace Post for 2011. The post is about 1400mm high and 150mm square.

Barry Smith © Peace Post for 2011 - be peace

Below are a few more photos of the Peace Post for 2011.

Barry Smith © Rust - Peace Post for 2011

Barry Smith © Peace Post for 2011 - be joy

Barry Smith © Rust - Peace Post for 2011

Barry Smith © Peace Post for 2011 - mindful joy

Barry Smith © Rust - Peace Post for 2011

Barry Smith © Peace Post for 2011 - mindful peace

Barry Smith © Rust - Peace Post for 2011

Wishing us all peace in our lives; may we join in continuing to send peace vibes when we can; and continue to stumble along on our peace journeys.

Coffee harvest

Over the weekend Fiona and I have been doing a few catchup chores on the block - weeding, dead-heading the agapanthus, pruning the camellias, spraying the broad-weeds with weed and feed etc. Our coffee plantation (only 30 bushes) needed attention on a number of front including getting ripe coffee cherries off. As you can see from the photo below we have two colours of coffee cherries even though they are both dwarf forms of arabica robusta.

Barry Smith © Bowl of coffee cherries

We had lots of red cherries last year but few this year - but an abundance of yellow cherries.

Barry Smith © Coffee cherries on the bush

We picked two large bowls of cherries in about half an hour.

Barry Smith © Bowl of cherries 2

The next stage  is to pulp the cherries to get the outer fruit pulp off. We have invested in a hand operated pulper from South America; and it worked a treat. Pulping the two bowls of cherries with fingers would have taken about 4 hours - we did it in 15 minutes.

Barry Smith © Hand operated pulper

Barry Smith © Freshly pulped beans 

Barry Smith © Pulp

The beans are now soaking for a couple of days to get the rest of the slimy fruit layer off; and then they will be ready for drying.

Barry Smith © Soaking coffee beans

Barry Smith © Soaking beans

But that is not the end - we will then remove the dry outer chaff-shell; and the inner green bean will be ready for roasting and then grinding. A long way from bush to cup. And given the amount of cherries on the bushes we think there will a few more batches yet. But we know where they came from and how they were grown and harvested etc.

Sharing a few pics on Friday

Fiona and I have been going a bit flat out recently so we decided to take a few days away. We decided to head to sea as we have beautiful mountain views and knew the sound and sight of the sea would be relaxing.

We managed daily or twice daily walks on the beach. As usual took a few photos of things with the iPhone - so thought I'd share a few.

Barry Smith © Leaf with sand

Barry Smith © Abandoned bedspring in the sand

Barry Smith © Black pebble in the sand

Barry Smith © Yellow pebble in the sand

Barry Smith © Leaching coloured sands 1 

Barry Smith © Tree root

Barry Smith © Leaching coloured sands 2

Some sand and objects lend themselves  to manipulation with the iPhone apps so here are a couple of before and after photos.

Barry Smith © Dog visits abandoned bedsprings in the sand

Barry Smith © Dog print enhanced

Barry Smith © Patterns in the sand

Barry Smith © Patterns manipulated

And we did return refreshed and are back into it - a full program of work-work and art that will take us up to Christmas.